Family Tree

by miss-cyan


The Leap

I woke up way too early, the sun hadn’t come up yet. The ankle biter was already gone, earning a shrug from me. Wasn’t like I was expecting him to stick around. I knew I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep anytime soon, and it wasn’t like I had my phone to mess around on while I just laid there.

I made my way downstairs, the clocks telling me that the Apples would be up soon to start their day. I looked around the empty house, a thought hitting me as I made my way to the kitchen. Soon enough, the Apples were up and eager to start their day, and they found me pretty quickly.

“Lottie?” Applejack came in first, sniffing the air curiously. When she spotted me at the wood stove cooking breakfast, she rushed to my side.

“Aw, hey, you didn’t have to go to that much trouble.” She said, hovering behind me nervously. “You’re our guest!”

“I know, I woke up way too early and just felt like it.” I shrugged, flipping what was in the skillet. “I went out to the chicken coop, got some eggs, and picked a few of the tomatoes from the vines. You guys had everything I needed to make some salsa. It’s pretty mild, but I think it’ll do the job.”

“Salsa?” she asked, her ears splayed out quizzically. “Now what do you need salsa for at breakfast?”

“I’m makin’ omelets.” I smiled, noticing the other Apple adults eventually drifting in, sniffing at the air. “I’ve got all the fixings here and some more stuff at the table to eat while I’m cooking.”

“We don’t make a whole lot of egg dishes, since we do so much baking.” She was eyeing the skillet now, looking pretty hungry.

“Well then, today’s a treat!” I smiled. She smiled back at me, seeing that I was in a much better mood than yesterday, even if I still wasn’t a hundred percent. “First up is one for Granny Smith, would you like anything in particular on it?”

“I wouldn’t mind some of those diced mushrooms, missy.” She grinned, sitting at the head of the table. I got to adding those and a few more ingredients before passing it on to Applejack, who decided to help me out.

“I think I’m gonna make Big Mac a frittata.” I mused, cracking another egg. The stallion paused mid-bite into an apple, looking around to his family for clarification.

“Now what in tarnation is a fri-ta-ta?” Applejack asked, her head titled. But before I could explain, There was a loud, laughing shriek from upstairs.

“Lottie!” Apple Bloom shouted down the stairs. “It worked!”



After breakfast, Apple Bloom was running around, collecting her school supplies in her saddlebags as I held her newest toy, my own creation. Sure enough, another night’s sleep with her had made the magic work, not that I could even begin to understand why. I had my theories, but with my understanding of magic being as limited as it was, theories were probably all I’d have.

The toy moved much like a dog would, as opposed to the more reserved, pony-like body language of Little Bluey. He sniffed around like a dog, rolled over for tummy rubs like a dog, the whole nine yards. I’d picked him up because, given that he was roughly the size of a clementine, I didn’t want him to get stepped on while he was underfoot, or underhoof. Not that I was one hundred percent sure it would actually hurt the little guy, but I wasn’t willing to find out.

“And then what happened?” she asked, gathering her pencils back into her pencil bag.

“Pinkie seemed pretty happy about her, and Little Bluey too, her tail was wagging and everything.” I smiled, petting the tiny dog with a single finger. “Come to think of it, Pinkie’s might’ve been wagging too.”

That got a laugh, and Apple Bloom looked to be double-checking her bag. She nodded, turning to face the two of us.

“I’m really happy that the little guy was moving this morning.” She smiled, reaching out for him and he jumped to her with no hesitation. “I really do love him, Lottie.”

“I know.” I smiled, watching the two of them. “I think it’s safe to say he loves you too.”

“I wanna take him to school…” she said in a quiet voice, like it was a big secret. “But Applejack might get mad at me for takin’ toys to class, even if they’re magic.”

“Well…” The responsible adult in me was telling me to agree with this hypothetical Applejack. But the irresponsible dumbass in me was thinking ‘What am I, her mom?’, and couldn’t care less. “If you do it and you get caught, I don’t know nothin’ about nothin’, got it?”

“Got it!” she winked. She looked to her little guy, and he sniffed up at her. “You think he’ll be good while class is happening?”

“I…‘magic worded’ him to be a loyal kind of dog so…If you tell him to be still and quiet in your bag, he might just listen to you.” I shrugged, basically guessing at this point. “Plus, what’s he gonna do, start barking? He doesn’t have a mouth.”

Apple Bloom looked mildly put off by that, but shrugged it off. She firmly but nicely told the tiny puppy to do just that and he settled himself in her bag, seeming to be still and almost sleeping. He didn’t have eyelids either, so it was another guess on my part.

“You worried he’ll get bored here?” I asked. “You could always let him run around with Winona, she’d probably keep him company.”

“No, I’m sure he’d be fine.” She told me, her ears drooping a little. “I just…I’m not looking forward to today, and he’d cheer me up just by being there with me.”

“You got a math test or something?” I asked, half-joking but also remembering my dreaded math tests of yester-year. Best part of being out of school. She shook her head, putting her saddle bags on her back.

“This is gonna be the first day I’ll have seen Diamond Tiara and her friend Silver Spoon since they pulled what they pulled with you and the newspaper, if that was them like I think it was…” she sighed, with just a hint of being so done. “I don’t know if I’m ready for what they might throw my way today…”

Her bullies? I thought, I recognized at least one of the names.

“I did what you said, last time, when they were picking on Sweet Wheat about you.” She looked sadder still. “I acted like I didn’t care about what she was saying, and they got back at me by putting your picture in the paper.”

“Oh…” I scratched at my arm, not being able to help but think of my bullying days. “Yeah. That might be…well…” She looked up at me, ears still down. I sighed and pushed on. “Sometimes…sometimes when you ignore a bully, they…they find a way to hit back harder. Confidence is important to helping you deal with what they do, but…”

“Lottie?” the filly came up to me, her head tilted and her eyes wide. “All the things you’ve been tellin’ me…Did you get bullied?”

“…Yeah. Yeah I did.” I sighed, moving to sit down on the bed. “But y’know, I’m okay now, more or less.”

“Did you get teased?” She was really fishing here.

“Uh, yeah, I guess.” ‘Teased’ seemed like a relatively tame way of putting it. Harassed was more like it, also some beatings. Can’t forget about the beatings.

“How did you get them to stop?” she asked, oh so innocently. It almost hurt me to try and think of what to say next.

“I…” There were two truths here, and neither were entirely appropriate to talk about with a young child. One truth was that it didn’t really end, I just graduated and never saw ninety-nine percent of the people I went to school with ever again. The other truth was that the harder I fought back, the less likely stupid teenagers were to pick a fight a second time.

I wasn’t a violent person by nature, or some kind of wild child with no regard for my personal safety, quite the opposite. If I kept my head down and didn’t fight back, I got hit harder and more often. When they knew I would throw a punch right back and not stop hitting until my point had thoroughly gotten across, people thought twice.

Or brought more friends.

I can’t say I “won” many of those fights, but I always got back up. I’d already almost died once, anything those stupid kids could try to do to me didn’t even come close to that.

“I’m not gonna lie to you, Apple Bloom.” I looked to her as she jumped up to sit on the bed with me. “I had a lot of people who just didn’t like me, and they hurt me pretty badly. But no matter what…I kept going.”

She looked unconvinced, getting a sigh from me.

“Look.” I tried to sound reassuring. “Sometimes people just plain don’t like you. I can tell you to ignore them, fight back or run away. But in the end, you have to do what’s best for you…no two situations like this are exactly the same. If these fillies are picking on you for thing you can’t control like not having a cutie mark, chances are when you do get one they’ll find something else to bully you about.”

Her ears drooped at that, but I put a hand on her head and she looked up at me.

“It’s not always as simple as trying one thing or the other. So instead of living your life around those kinds of ponies, you’ve gotta just…live. You know?”

I didn’t think I got my words out the way I wanted them to sound. But they seemed to work well enough as the filly hugged my side.

“Thanks, Lottie.” She mumbled, looking up at me. “I don’t know if’n I really got a lot of that, but I do feel better, I guess.”

I laughed, appreciating her bluntness as usual.

“Sorry, I wish I was better at this…just…don’t be afraid to stoop to their level.” I hoped no grown ponies could hear me saying this, it didn’t exactly keep to the Equestrian mindset. “Being the bigger person-er…pony isn’t always the win it seems to be. Just don’t be the one to instigate things, never throw the first literal or metaphorical punch.” Just like Grandpa taught me.

“I wouldn’t do that.” She objected, and I told her I knew she wouldn’t.

“Things ever get really bad, you can always talk to me about it.” I assured her. “Or your family.”

“I will.” she smiled, seeming to be feeling better. I wasn’t really the advice giving type, seeing how my own life was such a mess sometimes, but with this filly I felt like protecting her, even in little ways. She, and her family, had been so nice and welcoming to me, a stranger. The least I could do is try to cheer up their youngest from time to time. And the occasional breakfast, of course.

I just hoped I hadn’t made things worse somehow. No telling how advice based on my own experiences would play out in the pony world.

“I gotta get goin’.” She announced, hopping off the bed. “What are you gonna do today?”

“I’ll finish up whatever chores your family can throw my way, then who knows?” I shrugged. “I’m sure I can find something to entertain myself.”



“What about this one?”

With Little Bluey sitting on her back, the two of them had made their way to the Toy Store. The smaller, stuffed pony was currently trying out the doll beds in one of the aisles. She didn’t look especially uncomfortable in any of them, Pinkie thought. But she’d yet to choose one.

“Yeah, that one was kind of small, even for you.” She watched Little Bluey climb out of that one and onto the next, pulling back the covers and settling in for a test run.

The Toy Store was pretty empty, it being a school day and all. But they hadn’t run into any other customers yet. Pinkie had soon discovered that Little Bluey really wouldn’t need a lot of things to live comfortably with Pinkie. She’d been eager to buy a tiny little tea set only to realize that the toy didn’t need to eat or drink. And Pinkie was never the best at pretend tea parties. They always made her crave real life treats and tea. They did end up picking out a little brush for her mane and Little Bluey ended up picking a simple little wooden bed. She picked up a few more things that she thought would come in handy for her tiny new friend to get around.

When she took her friend’s selections to the register up front, the clerk at the front looked up from inspecting her hoof, her usual bored look vanished at the sight of the little stuffed pony.

“Hiya Duckie!” Pinkie grinned, setting her purchases down on the sales counter. “My little friend here needs some stuff to move in! How much do I owe ya?”

But Duckie just kept staring, leaning in to get a better look at Little Bluey. The little gal, very politely, gave a little wave.

“That’s not one of ours, is it?” she asked, not taking her eyes off the toy pony.

“Oh wow.” A voice from behind drew Pinkie’s attention. It was Power Chord and little Cream Puff in the line behind her.

“Well hey there you two!” she greeted with a smile. But their eyes were glued to Little Bluey too. “Gee, LB, you sure are popular! Maybe they like your style? You do have a very nice jacket.”

“Is that toy…alive?” Power Cord asked her, Cream Puff idly sucking on her hoof with wide, shining eyes. “Hey, ain’t that neat, Puffball?”

“What’s that?” An elderly mare Pinkie knew to be Pearly Stitch leaned an ear forward, steadying herself on her walker. “Why, look at that lil’ whatchamacallit! Why, my grandfoals would be thrilled to play with a little whosits like that!”

“Wow, Little Bluey!” Pinkie grinned at the ponies around her. “You sure are popular!”



Apple Bloom stared at the school, her stomach a little flippy-floppy. She felt the weight of her saddlebags on her flanks, the grass under her hooves, everything was still, just waiting for her to go inside.

“Hey, AB, you gonna be okay?” Scootaloo trotted up beside her.

“Those two are gonna be awful today, I just know it…” she muttered. Sweetie Belle followed her line of sight, pulling off in the wrong direction.

“I know what you mean.” She bumped her friend’s side playfully. “Snips and Snails have been a bit much lately, but at least Ms. Cheerilee took those hoof buzzers away. They’re trying way too hard to get into the Young Ponyville Pranksters.”

Sure enough, the colts trying and failing to hide blowing up a couple of whoopee cushions, giggling too much to actually get the job done.

“Not them!” Apple Bloom whined. “Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon! Their little scheme to get ponies thinking Lottie was some dangerous critter fell through. At least, I’m pretty sure it was them. If it was, they’re gonna be itchin’ to get back at her, and me. I just know it!”

“Well, there’s not much to do standing out here.” Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Except for going in there and trying not to draw too much attention to ourselves.”

“Not today!” Scootaloo cheered, her wings buzzing excitedly. “I’m gonna be the talk of the schoolyard with what I brought in!”

“You’ll have to do better than one of your scooter tricks, Scoots!” Sweetie Belle tossed her mane back, joking at acting all haughty. They both got a good giggle out of it. “What I brought in is gonna knock everypony’s socks off! Well, maybe just Whip Stitch, she’s always wearing those wool socks her grandmare made her.”

“What are you two getting’ it?” Apple Bloom cocked her head, looking between her friends. They looked back with wide eyes.

“Uh…show and tell?” Scootaloo smiled. “Don’t tell me you didn’t bring anything?”

“I wish Ms. Cheerilee would call it something else…” Sweetie Belle sighed. “Show and tell makes it sound so…foalish.”

Apple Bloom’s brain ticked away before it finally came back to her.

“AH, SHOOT!” she cried out, knocking her head with a hoof. “I was so worked up yesterday, I forgot to put Great Granny Sew-and-So’s parasol in my bag this morning!”

When the parasol had made it back to the Apple House, she though it would make the perfect show and tell subject. And it had a heck of a story to it too, now that everypony knew about Lottie. After the town meeting, she figured it was her chance to introduce her to the class in a roundabout way, since she couldn’t just bring in Lottie herself. A way to let her classmates know about her and what she was really like, not the monster some of them definitely still thought she was.

“You forgot?” Scootaloo blinked. “What had you so worked up that you forgot show and tell?”

A thought crossed her mind, and she realized that she wasn’t quite as empty-hooved as she thought.

“Somethin’ pretty amazing.” She grinned. “You’ll see!”



Show and tell was going pretty much as it usually did. Some of the foals brought in new, kind of interesting things; a new song they learned, a souvenir from a family vacation to Manehattan, A letter from a pen pal from Vanhoover, those sorts of things. Others brought in things they’d shown off before; old family heirlooms, their favorite board game, etc.

Scootaloo had wowed the class with a letter her parents had mailed her from out in the field, including their photos of their visit to Zebrica and meeting the local tribes. Sweetie Belle brought in a playbill her parents had brought back from Manehattan, with the autograph of one of her favorite Bridleway performers. They both got a big reaction from the class, like they’d hoped they would.

“Thank you for sharing Silver Spoon.” Ms. Cheerilee beamed at the filly as she went back to her desk. “Always a treat to see your grandmare’s collection of your namesake. Very educational! Diamond Tiara, what would you like to share with us today?”

Apple Bloom heard the filly before she saw her. A weary sigh called out from a couple rows of desks over as she got to her hooves and made her way to the front. The trio of fillies shared a look with one another, wondering to themselves what was up with the spoiled filly. Show and tell was usually Diamond’s time to shine, to be the center of attention.

“Go ahead.” Cheerilee smiled gently. Diamond just put her eyes to the floor.

“I…I wanted to bring in Daddy’s first dollar. From when he took over Barnyard Bargains from Grandpa Rich. But…I forgot to bring it with me. There was a lot going on last night before bed and…I’m…I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright Diamond.” Cheerilee said in a comforting voice. “I know how much you like show and tell, you wouldn’t not bring something in if you could help it. Instead, you could write a short essay on what you wanted to talk about and turn it in by tomorrow. Alright?”

“Alright.” She dragged her hooves and made her way back to her desk, Silver Spoon giving her a comforting pat. The trio exchanged another look.

“Apple Bloom, let’s see what you’ve brought today.”

As nervous as she’d been about possibly riling up the two spoiled fillies, this was more important to her. If she could get her classmates to accept Lottie, it was only a matter of time until their parents came around too. Lottie’s words from tat very morning rang in her head.

So instead of living your life around those kinds of ponies, you’ve gotta just…live. You know?

“My show and tell comes with a story, is that alright?” Ms. Cheerilee nodded with a soft smile, and Apple Bloom went to the back of the class to get her saddle bags. “As y’all might recall, there’s somepony new in Ponyville.”

Whispers washed over the crowd of foals until Ms. Cheerilee cleared her throat, subtly letting them all know that they needed to settle down. She made it back to the front of the class.

“I know that a lot of stories have gone around town about her, and even though all of us were at that town meeting, some ponies might still be a might bit skeptical about her. So I brought something special today to help y’all see her in a new light.”

The class was captivated by her words; her friends seemed pretty excited for what she had to say, though the other two ponies on her mind were a different story. Silver Spoon was looking over at her friend nervously, while Diamond Tiara’s face was a bit harder to read. She pushed on.

“Lottie’s been stayin’ out at Sweet Apple Acres with my family. She’s different-looking, but she’s a really nice human. Part pony too, even though she don’t much look like it. Before, I was gonna bring in a parasol my Great Granny Sew-and-So made for Lottie’s great aunt, and tell y’all about her that way. But…”

She reached a hoof into her bag, pulling out her newest little friend.

“I think it’s better just to show you.” She smiled. “Wake up, boy.”

The little dog stuffy shuddered awake in her hoof, stretching it’s tiny body much like Winona did in the mornings. There were a few soft gasps from her classmates, and big smiles, so she took it as a sign to keep going.

“Lottie has a special magic, from her pony side.” She told them all, holding the stuffy in one hoof and petting him with the other. “She makes toys and then she brings them to life. It’s really neat, and she made this little guy for me. He’s only been alive for a little bit, but I think he’s my new favorite toy.”

“Anyway, Lottie can do something pretty dang special, sure. But I don’t like her because she can make magic toys.” She smiled. “I like her because she’s nice, and she tries hard to be helpful. She’s a little bit lonely here in Equestria, bein’ so far from home, from her family. But I’m gonna do my best to be there for her, and be nice to her, and…well…I hope I can ask you guys to be nice to her too.”

It was quiet.

“Um…that’s all.” She tried to smile, a little awkwardly.

“Well, thank you very much Apple Bloom!” Ms. Cheerilee clapped her hooves softly. “That was very nice of you to use today to do something for somepony else. Does anypony have any questions?”

So many hooves shot up in the air, Apple Bloom was actually a little startled at the reaction.

“Snips?” the teacher called on the colt.

“It’s so little!” he called out.

“Not a question.” The teacher’s response was a tiny bit deadpan.

“That’s just the way she made him.” Apple Bloom laughed.

“Rumble?”

“Uh…does he know any tricks?”

“I don’t rightly know.” She put him down at her hooves. “Sit?”

Sure enough, the little dog listened to her, earning a “Ohh!” from the collective class.

“How about Sweet Wheat?”

“Um…” she was a little shy, but spoke up finally. “Is…Is Lottie feeling better? She seemed okay at the town meeting but I just, ya know, wanted to make sure.”

“She’s doin’ better.” Apple Bloom smiled, getting a smile back. “She got lots of rest and her appetite came back too.”

“Wow!” somepony called out.

“What’s his name?”

“Can he do ‘Speak’?”

“His mouth’s all stitches, of course he can’t!”

“Oh, then he doesn’t need to eat either. That’s weird, but neat!”

“Settle down, class.” Cheerilee warned them with a good-natured sigh.

“I wonder if she’d make one for me!”

“Hey, yeah!” somepony cheered. “It’s so cute!”

IT’S NOT-”

Everypony turned to the source of the outburst, the rest of the ponies going silent. All eyes were on Diamond Tiara, who turned red when she’d realized what she’d done. She eased back into her seat, which she’d jolted up onto with her loud reaction.

“I’m sorry.” She said, sounding a lot meeker. “I didn’t mean to…to be so loud. It just came out…”

“That’s alright Diamond. Accidents happen, and it was good of you to apologize.” She said with a raised eyebrow. She turned to the rest of the class. “But that’s it for show and tell today, class. Apple Bloom, thank you again for your presentation. Now everypony needs to put their things away and get ready to practice our fractions.”

Nopony even groaned as they usually might, there was too much excitement in the air. Apple Bloom stole one last glance in Diamond Tiara’s direction, seeing her sitting in her desk, red-faced and trying to control her breathing.

Something, or somepony had Diamond Tiara hogtied, unable to lash out like she usually would. Apple Bloom wasn’t about to go whackin’ the hornet’s nest, but she was thankful for whatever had the bratty filly under control. By the looks on Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle’s faces, they’d noticed the change too.

Hopefully, it would last a little while.



Randolph had gotten the day’s report from Ms. Cheerilee while Diamond Tiara sat outside with Silver Spoon. Her friend, more or less, had been filled in on her situation, knowing that if she got in any trouble at all in the next week, their Nightmare Night plans would be ruined and her father would publicly humiliate her. Her best friend was sympathetic, vowing to do her best to keep anything from happening if she could.

Today had been…trying, to say the least.

In all the commotion of her father punishing her and her mother’s talk with her, she’d completely forgotten about show and tell. She’d always loved getting to show off to her classmates, so having nothing was pretty embarrassing, Even those two dumb colts Snips and Snails had something to bring in, making her feel so utterly miserable.

And of course, that hick filly just had to bring up that creature. She couldn’t believe what she had heard. There was no way that that horrible, ugly thing had done magic of any kind. It must’ve been some plan of Princess Twilight’s to make the thing look good and endear her to the townsponies. Bring a stupid stitched-up foal’s toy to life and say that monster did it.

And worst of all, her idiot classmates had completely fallen for it! Not a single one of them had seen that toy for what it was; a trick to fool all of them. They’d go home and tell their equally brain-dead parents about what they’d think they’d seen and convince them to think that thing was some kind of magic half-breed and therefore, not a threat.

She’d almost gotten herself in trouble, trying to tell them all what was really going on. But she’d gotten herself under control, playing the apologetic little filly she was supposed to be. But it was still swirling inside her, all the things she’d wanted to say. She felt horrible, her stomach twisted up with so many different emotions. But she would keep it all inside, just long enough to appease her father.

After that, there was no telling what she would do. Until then, Apple Bloom and those other two blank flank loser friends of hers had better stay far away from her. Or she couldn’t be held responsible for how badly she’d react.

That was a promise.



I’d been busy that morning, doing little things here or there around the Apple household. Cleaning up after breakfast, feeding the chickens and helping Granny Smith with some more sewing jobs she’d let pile up. All the while she rambled with stories from when she was younger, and the background noise was actually pretty nice to sew to. I also listened, of course, but I’d be lying if I said I remembered every detail.

Even Big Mac had a job for me to do. He’d made sure I knew how to properly swing an axe, which was weird seeing a pony do, so that I could help chop firewood to get ready for the colder season coming soon. It was tiring work, but it helped me to burn off a lot of energy.

I was lost in thought, stacking the wood where I’d been shown to earlier.

“I didn’t think I’d be here long enough to worry about winter coming so soon…” I sighed, still stacking. “They’re sure to have noticed I’m gone by now, not to mention by Christmas...”

The thought of my disappearance creeping into the winter wound itself around my brain. I didn’t mean to make the holidays a mess for my family…

“I hope you get to go home soon, but…If you’re still here by winter…do you wanna spend Hearth’s Warming with my family and me?”

I shook off the thought. I’d done a pretty good job keeping Pinkie off my mind the entire day. Lest I’d have to think about certain things I’d been putting off…

“Keep it together.” I sighed. “You’ve got time. It’s not like she’s gonna pop out of nowhere and jump you.”

“Lottie!!”

“Bluey!!”

As if I’d summoned them with my ironic mutterings, I was barreled over by two familiar faces. Well, I recognized them after the world stopped spinning.

Two very happy ponies, Pinkie and Apple Bloom, were leaning over me as I laid in a crumpled heap. Both with wide, mildly unsettling grins on their faces.

“I stand corrected.”

“Lottie! We did show and tell today and-”

“Lottie Dottie, you’ll never guess what I did today! I was at the toy store and-”

“And everypony loved it when I showed them your toy, and they all seemed to really like you and-”

“And then they all asked me about Little Bluey, and she made a lot of new friends! And Duckie, that’s the pony that works at the toy store, was really interested in-”

“Ponies want to meet you!” they both shouted together, which was the second most concerning thing about this entire interaction.

“What the heck are you two on about?” I stood up, brushing myself off.

“I showed off Buttons to my class for show and tell and-”

“What buttons?” I cut her off, trying to get things under control.

“Oh, right!” she reached into her school bag, pulling out the little dog. “I named him Buttons! On account of his little button eyes. I showed him to my class to tell them more about you, and they really liked him! I think maybe some of them will want a toy friend too!”

“Ooooh!” Pinkie chimed in, her ears waggling excitedly. “That’s so weird! I took Lil’ Bluey to the toy store to get her some stuff and there were a lot of ponies who liked her too! I told them my pal Lottie made her, that’s so funny!”

I wasn’t a secret to the town anymore, and I’d never told either of them to keep their toys a secret or anything. But something was nagging at me that this was going to end up being more trouble than it was worth. Apple Bloom was chatting with Pinkie now, and my heart skipped a beat. Like, it sounds so hokey and cliché but honest to god, seeing Pinkie again after last time was bringing up everything I’d felt yesterday.

“I think some of my classmates will want to meet you now!” the filly told me, looking delighted by her news. “Is…Is it okay? That I talked about you?”

“Yeah.” I told her with a smile. “I’m sure you gave me a glowing review, short stuff.”

And I meant it. I’m sure she was just trying to endear me a little, like when she had Sweet Wheat come to meet me. And what’s the worst thing she could’ve said about me?

“I am a perfect height for my age, thank ya very much.” She put her nose in the air, sneaking a look at me with a little smile.

“Yeah well, everyone’s short to me.” I shrugged. I crouched down to her, leaning in to whisper something. “I need to talk to Pinkie about some stuff, could you make yourself scarce for a bit?”

“Oh. Right, you gotta talk business about ponies at the toy store.” She whispered back, setting Buttons on her back and trotting off before I could correct her. “Gotta go get my homework started, see ya later Pinkie!”

“See ya!” Pinkie called after the filly. She turned to me, going back to her thoughts from before. “I think if more ponies had a little friend like I do, there’d be a lot more smiles to go around. Do you think you’d make more if you could?”

“I…I don’t know.” I confessed. “I didn’t even mean to make half of the ones I did. Make them alive, I mean. Do you…”

I switched tracks on my train of thought, jabbing a thumb over my shoulder.

“Can we…talk?”



We sat with our backs to the side of the Apple’s barn; it seemed like a place no one would run into us and make me chicken out. I knew I had to do something about all these thoughts before I chickened out…before my dumb brain could talk me out of it.

Now or never, I guess.

“Uh, Pinkie?”

She turned to me, her big blue eyes shining bright as always. I swallowed, my nerves making it hard to think. Sitting close to her instead of standing tall above her was making this a much more intimate conversation, but I tried to put it out of my mind.

“What’s up Lottie Dottie?” she smiled, tilting her head a little. “Are you nervous about making more toys? Cause you know ponies are gonna love them! And you!”

“No, that’s…well, yes that’s got me a little wound up but-no. I wanted to…ask you something.”

She looked at me like she always did, with such hopeful, kind and trusting eyes. I was so rusty at this kind of thing, it would’ve been nerve-wracking even if I knew how she might respond.

“I…I wanted to ask…Well, is there anyone you-no that’s…”

I could feel my heart trying to burst out of my chest, but I couldn’t give up.

“Pinkie…how do you…feel?” I asked her, trying to maintain eye contact. “About me?”

“I like you, silly filly!” she laughed, her usual Pinkie grin making her practically glow. “You’re my friend!”

“I’m glad.” I smiled back, and I meant it. No matter how this turned out, her friendship meant so much to me, more than she could know. At the sight of my smile, Pinkie muffled a giggle behind her hooves, making me wonder what she could be thinking. “I’m glad we’re friends. You’ve been so nice to me, and it’s made everything here a lot easier.”

A pause, and I tried to think of another way to approach this.

“What…um.” I looked out to the farm, unable to keep looking at her. “What do you…like about me?”

“Oho!” she smiled even wider. “Lottie’s fishing for some positive attention, eh? Well, I’m happy to lend a hoof, and luckily~…I came prepared!”

She rummaged around in her curly mane, pulling out a folded piece of paper. When she opened it, it kept unfolding until it was as long as I was tall.

“Lottie’s smiles are the best, they make me all warm and toasty, like a mug of cocoa after a good snowball fight. Lottie gives the best ear scratches, and I love it when she plays with my mane.”

“Uh…Pinkie, what-”

“Lottie is good with foals, I think she’d make a good momma someday.” She went on, my heart going even more nuts somehow. “Lottie’s very pretty, when she’s blue or when she’s brown, and her eyes look like butterscotch candies. Lottie gives nice compliments, and even better hugs, and she-”

“Stop, geez! That’s good, I get the point!” I tried to laugh, but my embarrassment overrode it, my burning face spreading down my neck and up to the tips of my ears. Pinkie laughed with me, conceding to my embarrassed shouts. She folded up her list, looking down at the paper fondly.

“I started writing the list after you got sick…I felt bad that I couldn’t do anything to help…that I hadn’t come to see you earlier…” her ears drooped a little at that, but she was quick to bounce back. “But when you told me that you get sad sometimes, even if there’s no reason to be sad, I knew that that was something I could help with, even if it was just in a little bitty way! So I made a list of every reason my Lottie Dottie is special to me, all the reasons you make me happy! And the more we got to know each other, the longer the list got! I’m finding something new to like about you every time I see you, and I think that’s something special too…Oh!”

She pulled a pencil from her mane and put the eraser end in her mouth, seemingly writing down her latest thought.

“Shee?” she giggled, the pencil still in her mouth. My face was on fire, but my body…my heart felt light as a feather.

This silly pony…

“Pinkie?” I asked her, my earlier anxieties buzzing in the back of my brain. But when she looked back to me I didn’t fidget or fumble or anything.

“You wanna go out?”



Another shipment delivered, Rare Find found himself on his usual route out of town. He was no slouch, his pulling and long hauls supported by years of training his body, but he was always grateful for the break of pulling an empty cart home. Though it was kind of spoiled by the trip being mostly uphill all the way back to Canterlot. But what could you do?

Well, today the empty cart felt like a blessing at the day’s end.

He’d been scolded by his parents for staying out late the night before, having been goaded into drinks with some of the miners from the neighboring company. He was exhausted, slightly hungover, and generally out of it, but his folks saw it as his comeuppance for not taking care of himself, despite how his livelihood depended on his health.

“I never should’ve let those guys talk me into it…” he sighed, trying to shake it off. “All that talk about ‘keeping up with real stallions’…I’m such a big, dumb idiot.”

The drinking games had laid him low, and today’s workload was a harsh reminder not to let it happen again. But despite how bad he felt at that moment, he couldn’t shake a certain sensation.

His ears pivoted around, but no matter which way they swiveled, it was suddenly hard to hear the wilderness around him.

“Are stopped-up ears a hangover thing?” he wondered out loud, even his own voice sounded muffled to him. He bonked the side of his head with a hoof, slowly coming to a stop on the main road. “And chills?”

The air around him seemed colder than it had on the way into town, though not as much as a breeze seemed to touch his coat. His senses were quickly deadening, but he couldn’t get his thoughts straight enough to figure out what could’ve been the cause. Even his eyes seemed to be playing tricks on him; one moment he was on his usual route to home, the next everything was younger, more wild, untamed.

His hazy vision pushed in and out of these two realities, he shut his eyes tight and tried to shake off the things he couldn’t quite understand.

Just as his senses had begun to clear up, he could see something behind the barrier that should have shaken him.

But he only could look.

He saw himself on the other side, almost a mirrored reflection. But something was off…He couldn’t quite put his hoof on it but, the stallion on the other side of the barrier merely looked into his eyes.

“Why am I…” he started to ask, but the other him just tilted his head, throwing off their almost symmetry.

You’re not done

“Wh-…what?” he asked, the other Rare Find’s voice was calm and placating, but something about it…something about him was just…not right.

You’re not done

Mom and Dad

They’ll be so

Disappointed

I know they wish they had a better son than me

“Now, hang on…” he tried to reason. “I know I messed up, but-”

All they have is me

If I’m not doing my best I’m hurting the business

Hurting them

Someday they’ll be too old to keep working

I need to be better

I need to take care of them

His parents were getting on in years, and this other stallion…this other him, was speaking to what scared him the most, deep down.

“I…I know.” He hung his head a little. “We…just don’t pull in enough to hire new workers and support my folks.”

Gotta do my best

Gotta carry on the business

Take on an apprentice?

Marry into another mining family company?

What if I can’t

What if I ruin

Everything

Not good enough

Not good enough

Rare Find was starting to feel sick, all of his deepest worries were flooding his mind all at once. Things that kept him up at night, things that made his stomach ache on the long, quiet trips.

But it’s okay

His head shot up, looking the other him in the eyes.

Or where his eyes should’ve been.

“It…It is?” He asked, hopeful.

All you have to do

To make everything right

Just take them

Take them

“Take…take what?” He asked, his mind growing foggier with every word. The other him pointed a hoof to their ground, and suddenly Rare Find noticed them.

Those crystal lanterns he’d noticed on his last trip. Suddenly it all made complete sense.

“I take those…then everything will be alright…”

They surrounded the whole forest, and they took nearly all of his magical strength, but he ripped the lanterns out of the ground one by one, not stopping even when his muscles started to quiver and burn. His horn felt hot as he went. If he just took them all out of the ground, then he’d be better. The barrier didn’t give out, no matter how thin it was stretched. It wasn’t until the second to last lantern was finally out that it flickered out of existence, no two points to stretch itself between any longer.

Rare Find had let the lanterns drop where he pulled them out, his legs shaking under him. His body felt even more horrible than he had when he’d just been tired and hungover, but he felt so utterly fulfilled.

“I did it…I’m…I…”

All at once, it was as if the muddled atmosphere around his whole being burst like a fragile soap bubble, and he looked around, horribly confused.

“What the…oh horseapples!” he shouted, his tired legs skittering back towards the main road. “I just left the cart out on the path! What the heck is wrong with me?!”

He scolded himself as he got back under the harness, starting back down the trail. How could he just wander off like that for no reason? How far behind schedule was he?

“Mom and Dad are really gonna let me have it now!” he grit his teeth, wondering why he was so much more tired all of the sudden. “Ugh…I gotta stop in Neighton and get some thing for this headache…and something to eat.”

Long after the stallion was gone, vines slipped out from the tree line, wrapping around the discarded barrier crystals. In the stillness if the empty forest, no one around for miles, the steady beat of the once-hindering objects of the forest’s frustrations being smashed one by one went unheard.

It took a lot of magic, luring in adults. They were harder to reach than the open-minded, innocent young ones. More likely to disregard things they heard as being nothing worth paying attention to, less curious, more sure of how the world should be…But this time, they’d had the good fortune of reaching a creature whose mental walls were weaker, their physical body exhausted and susceptible. They’d had to stop when their task had been fulfilled, and now it was time to rest again, but it wouldn’t be long now.

This kind of thing took so much less energy than actually luring creatures in and carrying out what it wanted to do, what it was meant to do. What it had always done. With a short recovery of days, instead of months or even years, things could start again, as they had so many times before.

It wouldn’t be long…until another lost little one wandered just a bit too far, scared and alone.

Into the forests’ embrace.